Nobody expected the scrawny, underfed young girl from 7 to win the most massive, most bloodthirsty Hunger Games in all of Panem's history.
When asked what she thought the secret to winning the 'games' was, the 14 year old girl replied solemnly with, 'They aren't games, they're a mass slaughter of innocent children.'
And thus her brother never walked the Earth again.
After the so called 'games', Zo became withdrawn, like so many other victors before her, jarred by the things she had seen in the arena. And suddenly winning didn't feel so much like winning, but more like torture. For many years after her Hunger Games had finished, Zo wished she had stepped off her pedestal early, like the girl from 12, or asked for peanut butter on toast, like her District partner, who had promptly died of a severe peanut intolerance.
Zo had learned an important life-lesson on her victory tour- people like having someone to blame. She hadn't killed a single person, and yet the families treated her like she, by herself, was single-handedly responsible for every death in the games she despised so much. The worst reception was probably in District 2, and especially from the family of Julianna, the girl who had tried so hard to kill Zo throughout the whole games, and then, when given the chance to kill her, had somehow tripped over her own feet, and been speared on her own sword. The memory was always resurfacing in Zo's mind when she least expected and wanted it, and had definitely played a key role in her becoming even more introverted.
That being said, she also suspected they just wanted someone to blame for their daughter's death. And as it was primarily the Capitol's fault, and they couldn't direct their hate at the Capitol, Zo was their ideal punching-bag.
But the President herself, Ruby Snow, didn't just want a punching bag, she needed one. She couldn't have children with no kills winning a murdering competition. So that was how the Head Gamemaker, Xayne Alsrich, found himself being fired.
'You see,' Snow had explained, her voice sweet as honey, 'We can't have nobodies winning the Hunger Games, but we definitely can't have nobodies designing the arenas, can we?'
'N-no,' Xayne had managed to force out, though it felt as if there was a golf ball stuck in his throat.
'That's why you're fired,' she had said with a smile tugging at the corner of her lips, and then she had turned on her heel, and walked out.
Of course, Zo Shade knew the Capitol hated her. She knew a lot of things, like the fact that mentoring was like a punishment for winning the games. Child after child, murder after murder. She had watched as the children she had got to know were murdered cruelly on live television.
But Zo didn't know of a small boy called Antony who, as his sister lay impaled on her own sword, sat, head in hands, tears rolling down his cheeks.
Welcome to my SYOT! I'm sorry about the length (I write quite short chapters), but I hope you'll think of submitting! All the information should be on my profile but shoot me a PM if you have any questions. Also, this is told solely from third person and Zo's PoV.